New York City mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday announced his $100 million health care program to provide coverage and access to care to the 600,000 New Yorkers currently without it, including undocumented and indigent residents.
The program will strengthen NYC’s public health insurance plan, MetroPlus, to make it more affordable for all New Yorkers, while simultaneously implementing NYC Care, which will connect persons ineligible for insurance the access to NYC Health + Hospitals’ physicians, pharmacies and mental health and substance abuse services.
Blasio explained his inspiration and vision for the program, saying:
[N]o one should have to live in fear. No one should go without the health care they need. Health care is a human right. In this city, we’re going to make that a reality. In this city, we’re taking that ideal and putting it into practice. From this moment on in New York City, everyone is guaranteed the right to health care—everyone.
The program is expected to launch this summer.
The plan follows a recent federal judge’s ruling to invalidate the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The US District Court for the Northern District of Texas judge said in December that when the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 reduced the ACA’s shared-responsibility payment for not obtaining health insurance to $0, the provision ceased being a tax, making it an invalid exercise of Congress’s power to tax. The US and additional state defendants appealed the decision last Thursday.